ARTICLES ABOUT CHARLOTTE BOBCATS BY DATE - PAGE 2

Dwyane Wade is at a point in his career where he appreciates the small steps, especially when any strides previously had been so painful. So with the Miami Heat afforded time to reflect in the wake of their first-round NBA playoff sweep of the Charlotte Bobcats, the All-Star guard said he considers himself in a good place, considering the knee pain he dealt with during last season's playoffs and the hamstring issue that cost him nine...

Observations from Monday night's 109-98 playoff victory over the Charlotte Bobcats at Time Warner Cable Arena: -- Soon the playoffs will start for the Heat, as well. -- For now, LeBron James had no need to go into 61-point mode against the Bobcats in this series. -- And the series afforded Dwyane Wade the opportunity to get his legs, while also getting plenty of time off between games and between series. -- As for Chris Bosh, he soon will have to face centers with two working feet.

Two weeks ago, Miami Heat guard Norris Cole termed it as a “playoff mode.” It was his way of saying he's locked in for the postseason after an inconsistent regular season. Thus far, he is proving this time of year is when he thrives most. Cole scored 13 points on 4 of 6 shooting in the Heat's first-round, series-clinching 109-98 victory Monday against the Charlotte Bobcats. It was around this time last year Cole got going, including making 9 of 11 3-pointers in the conference semifinals against the Chicago Bulls.

Charlotte Bobcats center Al Jefferson will not play in Monday's Game 4 against the Miami Heat at Time Warner Cable Arena. Jefferson has dealt with pain from a strained left plantar fascia throughout the series. "The medical staff did all they could," Bobcats coach Steve Clifford said. The Heat lead the best-of-7 series 3-0. If they win, Jefferson would be available for Game 5. “He couldn't do anything this morning,” Bobcats coach Steve Clifford said after the morning shootaround.

The coast-to-coast frenzy that is the NBA Playoffs will begin soon enough for the Miami Heat. For now, these past four matchups against the Charlotte Bobcats felt more like games Nos. 83, 84, 85 and 86 of a regular season that never quite brought out the championship best in Erik Spoelstra's team. Completing their second first-round sweep in as many seasons, the Heat took advantage of a Charlotte lineup lacking hobbled center Al Jefferson in a 109-98 victory Monday night at Time Warner Cable Arena that now will give them at least five days off, perhaps even more.

The Miami Heat showed support of the Los Angeles Clippers players and coaches by wearing their warm-ups inside-out and tossing their pre-game gear at halfcourt before Monday's game against the Charlotte Bobcats. The Clippers used the gesture to take a stance in wake of the situation with owner Donald Sterling, who allegedly made racially charged remarks during a conversation with a female acquaintance. Before the game, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra hinted the Heat would make some sort of tribute.

Dr. Jack Ramsay left the Miami Heat's broadcast team in 2000, but his influence with the franchise was felt all the way through last season's NBA championship. In the wake of the passing of the Hall of Fame coach Monday at age 89 due to cancer, Heat coach Erik Spoelstra paused to pay tribute to someone he had known since his days as a youth in Portland, when Ramsay was coaching the Portland Trail Blazers. Included in Spoelstra's reflections was one notable exchange with Ramsay in 2010 while Ramsay was working as an ESPN analyst.

It was not, Pat Riley said Monday, a typical coach-broadcaster relationship when it came to Jack Ramsay working Miami Heat games in the mid and late '90s. In the wake of Monday's death of the Hall of Fame coach and former Heat television analyst at age 89 due to cancer, Riley there was far more to the interactions when Riley arrived in 1995 as Heat coach and team president, the latter a role he continues to hold. "When I came to Miami, the eight years that he was here as a broadcaster, there wasn't a day that he and I didn't talk basketball," Riley said Monday at Time Warner Cable Arena, after the Heat completed preparations for their NBA playoff game later in the day against the Charlotte Bobcats.

Tickets for the Miami Heat's home games in the second round of the NBA playoffs will go on sale Tuesday at 2 p.m. There is an eight-ticket limit per order. The Heat will play either the Brooklyn Nets or Toronto Raptors in a best-of-seven second-round series that will open no earlier than Sunday. As with all playoff rounds, the Eastern Conference semifinals will be played on a 2-2-1-1-1 basis, with the Heat to be the home team, to host Games 1 and 2, as well as Game 5 and 7, if necessary, at AmericanAirlines Arena.